I have owned my F250 extended cab with an 8 foot box for a month now and some people are telling me that because of the 8 bolt pattern and spring package that it is a Heavy Duty or Super Duty model. But it "only" (hehe) has the 4.9L (300 cubic inch) straight six/5 speed manual (they also say it will last 300,000 miles before a ring job and it has 120,000 miles now.

It's not a "super duty". "Super Duty" is a Ford trademark that has been used with various products through the years. There are 3 groups of trucks that I know of that have been assigned the title "super duty" through the years-

Medium and Heavy duty Ford trucks from around the '50s-'60s time period.

F-SUPERDUTY trucks from the '80s up to the fall of '97. These were a step up in load rating from F-350s.

All trucks that have the cab that is currently used on F-350s. This would include the vast majority of '99-present F-250s (I believe they made a few '99 light duty F-250s which were based on the platform that the current F-150 is based on), and all '99-present F-350s, F-450s, F-550s, F-650s, and F-750s.

Ford did have 2 types of F250's in that year. The best way to tell them apart (that I have found) is either by the weight rating, or the rear axle type. Check the weight rating for the front axle on the sticker on the door post. If the rating is 3800, that is considered a Heavy Duty. You can also look at the rear axle. The Heavy Dutys of that time frame got full float axles.

HTH

Roger Lane
Test Analyst
Sr. Automated Test Engineer

PS. I will check the weight rating on my '89 later and let you know what it is. Mine is considered the regular duty F250.

I've also understood the designation to refer to GVWR and such other ratings. If your truck is listed with a GVWR of 8,800lbs, it's a Super Duty. My Ford dealer told me that Super Duty was a designation Ford has used at various times throughout the years, mostly because it sounds good, and it delineates a truck built to handle a larger payload. So according to him, if it's got the higher GVWR, it's a SD.

I just checked the GVWR on my '89 F250 Regular Duty, it is 6800 Lbs. So, if your rating is higher, you have a heavy duty. I don't think Ford put any type of badges on the truck to say it is heavy duty until sometime in the 90's.

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